Hello,
This is a little lengthy. However it helped see how the three resurrections are God's 3 harvest Festivals. Hope you find it helpful as well.
The feast days of Israel prophesy on three levels. Level One is the individual personal level. On this level, the Feast of Passover is fulfilled in us by our justification by faith in the blood of the Lamb. Passover was the feast where the people killed a lamb and put its blood on the door posts and lintel. As Christians, we know that Jesus is the true Lamb of God who fulfilled the type and shadow in His crucifixion at Passover. When we put our faith in His shed blood, we are justified by faith.
The Feast of Pentecost is the next step in our walk with God. This is the feast where God begins to write His law upon our hearts, for it was on this day that He first spoke the Ten Commandments to Israel in Exodus 20. Acts 2 gives us the manner of its fulfillment, as the Spirit came upon the disciples in the upper room, and they all heard the voice of God speaking in their own language. Pentecost does not deal with our justification, but with our sanctification. It is the feast wherein we begin to learn obedience and learn how to be led by the Spirit during our sojourn in the wilderness.
The Feast of Tabernacles is the final step in our walk with God. This feast gives us the fullness of the Spirit and brings us fully into the promise of perfection in our relationship with Him. These are the three main steps in our spiritual growth and maturity as we grow up into the fullness of the stature of Christ.
Level Two is the corporate fulfillment in the Church, or the Kingdom of God. On this level we see God’s dealings with three Churches, or three stages of the Kingdom on earth. The Passover-level Church, or Kingdom, began with Moses at that first Passover, when Israel came out of Egypt. This first Church is called in Acts 7:38, “the church in the wilderness.” This Passover-Age Church ended with Jesus’ death on the Cross at Passover about 1,500 years later. It was an era where the Holy Spirit was WITH the people, but not IN them.
The second Church is the Pentecostal-Age Church, which began seven weeks after Jesus’ resurrection, when the Spirit of God was sent on the day of Pentecost. On this day God renewed the Kingdom by giving it greater power and placing the Holy Spirit within the people. No longer was the temple an external house made of wood and stone. Now the people themselves were the temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16).
The Pentecostal Age should have been a time when the Church learned the law of God and how to be led by the voice of the Spirit. Too often, however, the leadership in the various Church factions put away the law and removed from Christians the right to hear God’s voice for themselves. In this they followed the example of King Saul, who stood ready to kill his own son, Jonathan, for tasting the sweet honey of the word in the heat of battle. That story is found in 1 Samuel 14.
29 Then Jonathan said, "My father has troubled the land. See now, how my eyes have brightened because I tasted a little of this honey.”
That chapter is a historical allegory of the Church and well illustrates the problem during many centuries of the Pentecostal Age, when the Church forbade the people to read the Bible or to hear from God any voice that should go contrary to established orthodoxy of the Church.
The Kingdom of God in the Pentecostal Age did not bring righteousness to the earth, nor could it, because the Church was given only an earnest of the Spirit. Pentecost itself was a feast wherein God mandated that the firstfruits of the wheat should be baked with leaven. The lesson is clear: Pentecost cannot bring perfection to any individual, nor can its Church bring righteousness into the earth. That promise awaits the third and final feast and its Church, or Kingdom.
Level Three: The third Church is the Tabernacles Age Church. At the beginning of this age God will pour out the fullness of His Spirit upon the overcomers. They will rule with power in the earth and bring all things under the feet of Jesus Christ. Their ministry will bring righteousness and the fullness of truth into the earth. It will signal the greatest revival the world has ever seen, as the prophets foretell so often. This age, I believe, will last a thousand years, during which time the Kingdom of God will spread until it fills the whole earth. Habakkuk 2:14 tells us,
14 For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea.
The waters cover 100% of the sea. So also will the knowledge of the God’s glory cover the earth. This is the restoration of all things. This is the ultimate plan of God.
Even so, this is only the second level of fulfillment for the feast days. The highest level is the creation level. On this level we focus upon the feasts as harvest festivals, wherein God brings three harvests of souls into His “barn.” The first harvest is that of the barley company, the overcomers. This occurs at the first resurrection, which John dates at the beginning of the seventh thousand-year period.
The wheat harvest, which is the Church in general, will be harvested in the second great appointed time at the Great White Throne judgment. This will occur at the end of the thousand years, or the beginning of the eighth thousand-year period.
At this time the unbelievers (grape harvest) will begin to be trodden down in order to cleanse and purify them, so that they too will be fit for the Master’s use. The grape harvest will then be harvested at the end of time at the Creation Jubilee. We will have more to say about this in another chapter.
Paul’s Teachings on the Three Harvests
Paul is the only one who actually deals with the three harvests in a single passage. It is found in the great resurrection chapter, 1 Corinthians 15. In the first 21 verses, Paul deals with the importance of believing that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. He makes it clear that if Jesus was not raised from the dead, then our faith is all in vain, for His resurrection proves that the Spirit of God can indeed raise the dead. On this historic fact our faith hinges.
Then from verses 22 through 28 Paul deals with our own resurrections and tells us that there are three classes of people, three “squadrons,” who shall be raised at different times in history. These three categories correspond specifically to the three main feast days of Israel. Paul makes this quite clear, as we will see.
1. Barley and Wheat Harvests
Paul begins his discussion of the resurrections by a general statement that lets us know where Paul is taking us. He says in 1 Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.” This plainly tells us that all are going to be raised in Christ, even as all died in Adam. Next, he tells us HOW this is to be accomplished, and we will see that not all are going to be raised at the same time.
23 But each in his own order [tagma, or “squadron”]: Christ the first fruits [or, “anointed firstfruits”], after that those who are [the] Christ's at His coming [parousia, “presence”].
Most people are agreed that Paul is here talking about two different resurrections. However, most also assume that the first resurrection is that of Jesus, who is the Christ, “The Anointed One.” That is why we see it usually translated, “Christ the first fruits.” The second resurrection is then taken to refer to all the believers, and no distinction is made between overcomers and the Church in general. We, however, have good reason to differ with this view.
Remember, Paul had already concluded his section dealing with the resurrection of Jesus. In verse 22 he turned his attention to OUR OWN resurrections, saying that all of us will be made alive, but each in his own order, or squadron. The Greek word translated “order” in the King James Version is tagma, which is actually a military term, referring to a body of soldiers. Paul is saying that we will be raised in three squadrons.
The first squadron is NOT “Christ the firstfruits,” as most translators have mistakenly assumed. There are three squadrons, and Jesus is not a squadron, but an individual. It should read the “anointed firstfruits.” The Greek word christos means “anointed.” Jesus is, of course, THE Christ—that is, “THE Anointed One.” But the word christos does not always refer to Jesus. In fact, the word can be applied to anyone or any thing that has been anointed.
When the word christos is preceded by the definite article the, it usually refers to THE Christ—that is, to Jesus, who is “the Anointed One.” However, when christos is used WITHOUT the definite article, it is indefinite and could refer to people or things that have been anointed and set apart for God’s use. Prophets, priests, and kings throughout the Bible were all anointed, or “christened.” The vessels of the temple and even Jacob’s pillow (Gen. 28:18) were anointed
In 1 Cor. 15:22 the definite article is used in the original Greek, where Paul is talking about Jesus “the Christ,” in whom all shall be made alive. Then in verse 23, the is used in the latter part of the verse, but not in the first part. This implies that the verse should have been understood as follows:
“But every man in his own squadron: (1) the anointed firstfruits; (2) afterward they that are the Christ’s at His presence.”
Once we realize that Paul was using the theme of Israel’s three harvest festivals, his meaning is clear. Paul is here referring to Passover and Pentecost, the harvest of the barley and the wheat. The first “squadron” to be raised from the dead are the barley Overcomers; the second is the Church in general, the wheat harvest.
It is important to know that the firstfruits of the barley harvest were to be anointed with oil. Paul is referring to this fact here when he says, “anointed firstfruits.” We read of this in Leviticus 23:13. Speaking of the barley firstfruits as distinct from the firstfruits of the wheat harvest, Moses says:
13 Its grain offering shall then be two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil, an offering by fire to the LORD for a soothing aroma, with its libation, a fourth of a hin of wine.
And so, when Paul lists the first squadron of people who will be raised from the dead, he calls them the “anointed firstfruits.” He had in mind the firstfruits of the barley harvest. These will rule and reign with Christ on the earth (Rev. 5:10; 20:6).
Those who belong to Christ, the Church in general, will inherit the second resurrection. These are portrayed in temple ceremony where the two loaves offered to God were first baked with leaven (Lev. 23:17). While oil signifies the Holy Spirit, leaven signifies sin (Exodus 12:15; Mark 8:15). This is the main difference between the barley and wheat, and it is obvious that Paul picks up on that difference in his discussion of the first two resurrections. The first is the anointed firstfruits; the second is leavened company, the Church in general.
2. The Grape Harvest
Paul does not stop with the second squadron of people raised to Life. He goes on to the third squadron, and, in fact, he spends more time on this squadron than the other two combined. It is the squadron signified by the grape harvest at the end of the growing season, which was the focal point of the Feast of Tabernacles. So note how Paul carries this theme into his dissertation on the third resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:24-28.
24 Then comes the end, when He delivers up the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. 25 For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death. 27 For He has put all things in subjection under His feet. But when He says [in Psalm 8:6], "All things are put in subjection," it is evident that He [the Father] is excepted who put all things in subjection to Him. 28 And when all things are subjected to Him, then the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, that God may be all in all.
Note how often Paul says these people are to be put “under His feet” or “subjected.” There can be no doubt that Paul had the grape harvest in mind, for treading the grapes under foot was universally known to indicate judgment. This is absolutely consistent with the rest of Paul’s writings, where he reveals how all things (ta panta, “the all”) will be reconciled to God. Since reconciliation is a term indicating peace between ENEMIES, Paul is obviously referring to the rebellious nations of the earth who are enemies of God in this present age. Paul says that the purpose of creation is for all these nations to be subdued unto Christ.
Then when He has eliminated all His enemies (by turning them into friends), He will finally destroy that last enemy—death. One can only destroy death by giving Life. That is why we refer to this as a resurrection. Only when death itself is banished from the created universe will God be all in all.
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